My take on the commodity supercycle and stock market zeitgeist...and the new era of precious metals, uranium (just bottoming, btw)and alternate energy. As I have said here since 2005 "Get ready for peak everything, the repricing of the planet and "black swan" markets all over the place".

23 April 2009

Gold: Inflows into ETFs up by more than 300pc

Inflows into gold ETFs continued to grow throughout the quarter, with investors buying a record 469 tonnes of gold, dwarfing the previous quarterly record of 145 tonnes, set in the third quarter of last year. This took the total amount of gold in ETFs to 1,658 tonnes, worth US$48.6 billion, the World Gold Council said.

Ongoing risk aversion, growing uncertainty over where consumer prices are headed and a renewed vigour in the search for effective portfolio diversifiers all supported gold investment demand throughout the first quarter of 2009, the Council’s latest Gold Investment Digest.

“One reason the financial crisis has been so devastating for investors is that many alternative assets did not deliver on the promise that they would provide portfolio diversification,” said Natalie Dempster, head of investment, North America for World Gold Council and author of GID. “The same cannot be said for gold. Gold has been one of the few assets that has genuinely provided investors with diversification throughout the financial crisis.”

For the first quarter 2009, the gold price ended at US$916.50/oz, on the London PM fix, representing a moderate increase of 4pc, contrasted against a 12pc decline in US stock prices during the period.

Anecdotal reports from coin and bar dealers also point to another very strong quarter in retail demand for coins and bars in Q1 09, after a 396pc year-on-year increase in Q4 08. Dealers have continued to report shortages in the availability of official coins and small bars.

During the quarter average gold price volatility softened to 29.2pc, on a 22-day rolling basis, in Q1 09, from 44.8pc in the final quarter of last year.

Continued uncertainty over the health of the world’s financial sector and broader economy, alongside aggressive monetary and fiscal policy moves from the world’s leading central banks and major governments kept market volatility high across the board. For example, the volatility of the S&P500, also measured on a 22-day rolling basis, ended Q1 09 at 49pc.

Regarding the broader economic backdrop, commentators expressed two distinct views with respect to where consumer prices are headed. One sees inflation coming, as a consequence of the staggering increase in public spending and the quantitative easing measures being put in place by central banks around the globe.

The other view argues that deflation is the more likely prospect, pointing to recent inflation figures - US consumer prices were unchanged on an annual basis in January for the first time since 1954 - and the continued deterioration in consumer confidence and spending. Both scenarios have possible positive implications for gold:

“Gold is not just effective during a financial crisis. The unique and diverse drivers of gold demand and supply mean that changes in the gold price do not correlate with changes in the prices of other financial assets, regardless of the health of the financial sector or broader economy,” Dempster said. “Gold is an effective portfolio diversifier regardless of the stage of the economic cycle.”

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No man is free who is not master of himself.A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.Fortify thyself with contentment: that is an impregnable stronghold.

If you desire great things, do not attempt to lay hold of them with little effort; but give up some things entirely, and postpone others for the present.

Epictetus

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Plato

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.”

George Orwell

Any one who thinks, and is determined to let nothing stop him from thinking, is a philosopher . . .R. G. Collingwood ~An Essay on Philosophical Method, 15.

Civilisation came through two things chiefly: the home, which developed those social dispositions that form the psychological cement of society; and agriculture..... But it was woman who gave man agriculture and the home; she domesticated man as she had domesticated the sheep and the pig. Man is woman's last domestic animal, and ....the last creature that will be civilised by woman. The task is just begun.

Will Durant

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.

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What we now suffer in economics is a hardness of intellect, a meanness of spirit, a narrowness of vision and a rigidity of thinking that utterly distorts the role of what economics in our society should be. Instead of economics being our tool for societal advancement, happiness, health, and sustainability, the profession has lost its way in econometrics, neo-liberal cant and equlibrium theory. It has become little more than cheerleaders to our enslavement to a towering edifice of debt, consumption and greed and the mouthpiece of vested interests. Unless repudiated we face not only economic but soceitial and ecological collapse. KMcKern ~ News Kontent